Many new things are going on in the softball world at Pottsgrove High School! Rules changed, two new coaches were brought on, and many freshmen were added to the roster. Last year, the softball team had to say goodbye to two seniors at the end of the season. These girls were Jasmine Bowman and Kalysta Santino. Although the team lost two players, they gained six new freshmen. Currently, the roster consists of twenty girls, however, there will only be one  varsity team. Along with the addition of these new players, two new coaches were hired. Mallory Greene, the team’s new assistant coach, came from Spring-Ford and has a great amount of knowledge pertaining to pitching. She had an excellent high school and college softball career, and now coaches softball, along with bowling and field hockey. The other coach that was brought on to help is Andrew Prosser. He can be seen in Pottsgrove High School monitoring the halls and bringing positive energy to the school! On top of all of these new additions to the team, new rules were implemented for all high school softball teams.

According to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA), the new rules pertain to many aspects of the game. Firstly, the rules specify that an umpire’s authority is limited to the confines of the field and includes problems with players, coaches, and bench personnel. For example, umpires cannot eject spectators when they become disorderly because it is not within their level of control. Rather than another rule being added, an old rule was determined null. The rule prohibiting players from wearing jewelry has been eliminated, so players can wear whatever jewelry they want, unless the item is so distracting that the umpire cannot focus. In this case, the player would have to remove their piece (or pieces) of jewelry. The next rule pertains to the use of electronic devices during games. The transmission of information via an electronic device is only allowed within the team’s dugout/bench area, so coaches cannot send signals to players while they are playing in a game. To add onto this rule, recording and using the footage for coaching purposes is only allowed within the team’s dugout/bench area. The second to last new rule involves the umpires timing pitchers in between innings. Pitchers have one minute to throw up to five pitches, however, umpires are not allowed to pull out a stopwatch. Lastly, softball gloves may not have any logos or names on them that give the appearance of the ball. With these new changes, the Pottsgrove High School softball team definitely has an exciting season ahead of them!